Fisheries recovery and management plans since 2002

Under the Common Fisheries Policy, EU fish stocks must be placed under multi-annual recovery or management plans. In this study, twelve such plans are reviewed; four have contributed to a successful recovery of their targeted stocks and four have failed to generate any recovery. Failures are primarily due to inadequate provisions for constraining fishing effort and maintaining catches within agreed catch limits, particularly when fish are taken as by-catch in other fisheries.